Solarpunk Hogwarts
by annapatches
Summary: A selection of headcanons and one shots for a very AU Hogwarts.
1. Chapter 1

Every new student to Hogwarts is astounded, whether they're muggle or halfblood and only heard whispers, or pureblood and were being told stories since they were born. Hogwarts' grounds are huge and beautiful, with a serene lake full of rare and magical species, a chaotic, dangerous forest, neatly trimmed gardens, a Quidditch Pitch and a small train station. It even has a little parking lot, since there's a small magical-and-muggle village nearby that produces a few of students every couple of years. But all of that is nothing compared to the castle itself.

The castle is huge and beautiful and _sentient_. The stones of the castle are primarily a gray that somehow looks sophisticated and not at all boring, with highlights of windows of turquoise, rose gold, emerald green, gold, and chestnut brown. The castle has quite a few towers, the largest of which are the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor Towers. Although there are tons of rooms, several rather whimsical, each is beautiful with some sort of purpose, and although lots of rooms spend most of their time empty, few carry that lonely, dusty feel, and even then it is overshadowed by the mystery of what interesting things those few dusty rooms might contain. There are tons of classrooms teaching all sorts of different subjects- different magical and non magical languages, math and engineering, philosophy and transfiguration, history and science, potions and chemistry… a huge library and rooms for studying, rooms with wifi and ones with none (very helpful for doing homework), labs and art galleries… the entire place feels a bit like a museum really, stuffed full of art, yet it also feels comfortably lived in.

Unlike other magical schools, since the school itself is sentient, there is no need for some sort of group of statues to decide where for the students to go. After dinner in the Great Hall, the students are sent off to go wander through the castle until they find their new place of residency. Though seeing the staircases move and your friends mysteriously part from you as the school switches it's arrangement of halls and classmates can be scary, it's also incredibly magical.

Because of the technology in the castle, the few roofs of the castle that aren't covered up in roof gardens bursting with hammocked trees and graceful flowers are equipped with colorful stained glass solar panels.

Since there are so many classes, most classes have between ten and twenty people, allowing plenty of energy on the teacher's part to interact with each student individually. Since each student took different classes on different days and a different amount, there was little bonding beyond the houses. The Headmaster implemented two things to remedy this. First, the student exchange program. Once a year, four students in each year, one from each house, would spend a month in a different house. Second, study hour.

During study hour, a student would meet up with three other students from the three other houses in a place of their choice to discuss ideas, work on projects, and give each other advice. Their different house types result in interesting projects and their different personalities balance each other out.

The entire castle was exceeding lovely, full of greenery and windows and interesting people. Mandatory classes on cooking and gardening, which consisted mostly of actually cooking food and tending for plants and not sitting around talking about cooking or caring for plants, kept everyone in good eating and often, mixtures of the four houses would get together for a Quidditch match, a party, a Slytherin vs. Ravenclaw board game, an art showing or concert, or the like. Even the teachers loved the castle. Several of the teachers lived in the castle; those who only had classes part of the day usually lived in the village.

And, of course, it helped that you learnt magic there.


	2. Ravenclaw

Ravenclaw tower is the second most closely guarded residence- after that of the Slytherins, of course. In addition to the famous door knocker at the very bottom of the stairs, the thin, spindling stairs are also set with many booby traps. Ravens themselves never use the stairs on the way down, instead using a slide. On the way up, Ravens use a specific phrase to ask for a second, riddle then answer it for access to an safe version of the stairs. The riddle itself is not the safeguard, for the raven knocker will let pass anyone who humbly admits they do not know; instead, it is the asking for a second riddle that serves as a safeguard.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs, one finds themselves in a sprawling library-like area. The entire thing is circular; the outer edges are lined with the personal offices of the third years and above; the rest of the area is a maze made up of towering book shelves. Occasionally the bookshelves part to reveal a little corner with a desk or two to read in, or a little shop or cafe made up of two walls and a couple of desks or a counter, a stove, some cupboards and several stools./span/p

You see… Ravenclaws are unique in their manner of hierarchy. They have a Council, consisting of a Student Head, Teacher Head and Prefects. This council mints the Ravenclaw Gold Marks on melted-down butterbeer caps collected by the students. These Gold Marks can be used to purchase a number of things; students rent out the shops to sell books, tutoring, coffee, butterbeer, muggle school supplies, or a good number of oddities.

In addition, Ravenclaws do not have dormitories in the manner of the others. Instead, they have what they call coteries (what some of the worst Ravens nickname, in a very misguided pun, clawtories) made up of twenty one students in all- three students from each year. These coteries hang out together, give each other advice, and create special ciphers to use to speak to each other with. These coteries participate in highly competitive games of trivia, risk, monopoly, and even an over complicated variation on capture-the-flag known as Egg Thieves. The prizes to these games can be anything from gold marks to an enchanted object.

Because they do not have dormitories, the Claws sleep in nest-style beds that hang from what the Ravenclaws call The Branch. At the beginning of the year, the new Claws bid on which nest they'll get using their new gold marks. Reasons for choosing a particular nest include neighbors, view and height. Often, the bidding gets tense, but trades also happen later into the year if multiple people get too upset with their spot.

The slanted, glass walls lose their tint as soon as the sun fades. Often Claws stay up late using telescopes to spot various constellations. The empty floor space below the Branch leaves plenty of room for board games and house meetings.

The entire place smells of coffee and distraction. Music is often playing in some area; art hangs on many of the walls, and there are owls, sternly trained cats and song birds everywhere. The entire house is very happy and cheerful in cleaning up, caring for their oversized collection of pets, and helping each other because of their good-natured temperaments and the promise of all the interesting thing their Gold Marks can buy, but the house can also be highly competitive. Once a year, all of those with offices (third years and up) carefully set up a mixture of puzzles, booby traps and locks to hold out the intruders. If the intruders get in, they are rewarded with whatever prize may await them inside the office; anything from a bit of particularly well done art to a recipe to highly effective coffee. And of course, Egg Thieves is pointed out by all the other houses as an example of how surprisingly threatening the Claws are. On November 2oth, negotiations for which coteries will form teams begin. On the first day of the new year, the game begins.

"Eggs" are hidden throughout the castle in strategic positions, and teams try to find and capture them. The game can last for months, and often are still unfinished by the end of the year. The "Eggs" are the prizes themselves, being valuable or interesting knick knacks. Since teams are not allowed to retrieve their own eggs, a favorite pastime of Ravens on a rainy day is to go egg-hunting. /span/p

Suffice to say, Ravenclaws leave Hogwarts with a boatload of funny, interesting memories, a sharp mind, and two or three suitcases full of interesting bits and bobbers.


	3. Hufflepuff

New badgers find themselves being lead not to the common room, from which they would go into the dorms, but rather out past the kitchens. On the fringe of the expansive gardens, small houses closely resembling greenhouses pop up. The gabled little houses serve as the Hufflepuff dorms; each dorm has room enough for five students, a small kitchen area, a bathroom, and two desks. Hufflepuff dorms are always overflowing with plants, and the golden stone of the dorms is sectioned off by beautiful window seats. None of the dorms have passwords, nor do the friendly badgers want them; cubs, claws and snakes are all welcome into a badger's dorm.

The common room itself is a little bit better hidden, being tucked under the kitchens. The circular dorm has high windows letting in plenty of sun and providing a view of a little bit of grass and sky. Flowers hang from the ceiling in clay dishes; the golden wood floor is mostly covered by cheerfully colored rugs. There are a few desks, but mostly the common room has bean bags. There are cubbies along the walls holding board games and books. The close proximity to the kitchen allows the wonderful smell of whatever food is currently being cooked to seep downwards into the Puff abode. The common room is an area to study, hang out and discuss whatever project the house is taking on at the moment.

In addition to the common room and the dorms, the badgers have also claimed most of the gardens for their own. The garden paths are protected from rain by flower-covered eaves that allow badgers to visit their friends' little chalets. The garden paths often have wandering badgers walking on them, going to a nearby greenhouse, off to the main castle, or just to take a long, thoughtful walk.

The space above the kitchens is also occupied by the badgers. The badgers love to sew, knit, and otherwise craft; most of the little rooms above the kitchen are full of half finished projects. The roof slants upward on one side, leaning to a neighboring building; on the upward slanting side, there's a little cupola. On the other side, which slants slightly downward but is nowhere near as steep as the upward-slanting side, there's a cheerful little roof garden.

Although as part of their cooking and gardening classes, each student helps at least a little bit in the food production, Puffs love working in the kitchen or gardens, and so end up spending a lot of their extra time helping make food for the other students. The quirky Claws visit often, exchanging interesting bits and pieces bought by their signature Gold Marks for a plant, a tailoring, a lovely new scarf or sweater (Claws are obsessed with knit things, you know). Gryffindors and Slytherins may think their badger friends a tad odd, but they don't really mind. After all, who's doing most of the growing and gardening?


End file.
